GTA: Vice City Stories...

totally struggling finding those balloons. keep getting side tracked with jumps.

I use a map. There's no way I could keep track of them all, and some of them are just too hidden.

I really need to start up this game again. I find all my motivation goes once I finish the story missions in any GTA. Such a waste, I know.

I'm leaving the final mission until I've completed all my side missions and what not.

I think I have about 10 more balloons to find, they seemed easy at first - the redness stood out quite a lot.

hahaha, but i'm not a girl!

Final mission is alright iirc. Gave up on Balloons. Also Rampages, I tried one, remembered why I hated them and stopped. I am grumpy guts obv.

Sorry about that, stevie. I thought you were Dutch. After I posted that, I thought, wait, there might be more than one user named steve here.

I'm on the Unique Jumps right now. Also buying up properties and running drugs. I need to get fireproof before I do any rampages. I have a really nasty habit of setting myself on fire with my molatov cocktails.

that's alright... nathalie also posts as stevienixed, and i have no problem whatsoever being mistaken for her.

i was big on the business building too. hope some form of that is in GTAIV

Is there any rhyme or reason to which types of properties you build? I mean, do I need to create an equal percentage of them all, or can I make 90% Loan shark and 10% on the rest?

You should see my three-month old daughter's eyes light up when I do a unique jump. Everything's going fast then all of a sudden this graceful slow-motion ballet of digital motorcycle air. It's kind of weird that she's watching it all, but I don't think she was going to grow up to be Laura Ingalls Wilder anyway.

Is there any rhyme or reason to which types of properties you build? I mean, do I need to create an equal percentage of them all, or can I make 90% Loan shark and 10% on the rest?

i don't think so... i liked to keep an even spread, but slanted towards the ones that paid best.

Thanks. Tell Ophelia I said hi.

I don't think she was going to grow up to be Laura Ingalls Wilder anyway.

You just wanted to make sure!

I just made businesses that paid more. I'm sure there's an enterprising 10 year old out there that has made a walkthrough giving the pros and cons. Those children scare me, the level of obsession.

Fireproof tip: at the airport well off into the corner there is a fire engine. Most of it's early missions all happen in the airport so if you stop and start you shouldn't have to venture out too often.

I never did get my tank :(

"Here's one that Adam likes to wank off to"

"(tosser)"

I completed all the Turismo races in first place but it appears to have given me nothing !

played a marathon session tonight, but only found a further 3 balloons.

twatted the empire gangs tho, great fun!

does anyone else get these traffic bugs:

no traffic at all until reset ps2, might be the odd taxi or cop cars if you have a wanted level. It seems to come about after I try the vehicle rampage on Starfish island.

traffic stops in the middle of the road. I don't know if this is some problem with dodgy traffic light programming.

random taxi drives itself into walls under bridge that goes over to Prawn island

I've not noticed them. I tend to be bombing along anyway. Do you get anything special for all the Empire sites?

not got them all quite yet, still a couple of biker abodes to 'do over'

not sure if what you get for them

The biker ones are so great after. The Sharks all have AKs and there are 4 of them in a jeep. Nightmare after each one.

i've 'settled' my shark attacks with a nice distance sniper strategy. those 4-in-a-jeep visits were nasty.

luckily my henchmen were also packing AK's on some occasions, and that meant instant flaming jeep for a lot of the sharks.

once you own all businesses, you will cease getting hassle from competitors (i think). i noticed the lack of traffic sometimes, but i chalked that up to a 'cheat' i'd used on my saved game. that showed me.

It was a sad day when the game knew you were using a cheat :( That's only on the smuggling businesses they get AKs, the rest of the time they're nipples on a bull. Useless in other words.

I was defending a business on the west island, right on the main strip down the block where Maria lived. Fucking bikers would drive right by and head toward downtown. I'd have to just stand there and wait for them to come back. I tried to go after them once, but the caption at the bottom said I had to get back to the location in fifteen seconds. Those fuckers would go all the way to the pizza place on the west island and then turn around and come back. FUCK.

You know how sometimes the bikers will come out of nowhere to ambush you, usually right after you defend an empire? I had a pair try that on me while I was standing on one of the docks and they materialized in the water. Fortunately for me, bikers can't swim.

I also had a pair of bikers dissolve into the sidewalk outside the hideout by the amusement park. Lot of bugs around that place.

I've got just one more Unique Jump to fufill and it's a bitch. You have to go across three (or four) rooftops behind the old VC hotel on the east island, hit the ramp, and completely go over the next building. I can never summon enough speed for it, even though if I "leaned" any more forward, my head would scrape the front tire.

(pizza place on EAST island.)

I was defending a business on the west island, right on the main strip down the block where Maria lived. Fucking bikers would drive right by and head toward downtown. I'd have to just stand there and wait for them to come back. I tried to go after them once, but the caption at the bottom said I had to get back to the location in fifteen seconds. Those fuckers would go all the way to the pizza place on the west island and then turn around and come back. FUCK.

yeah, i think that's definitely a glitch. i had that happen a lot.

even though if I "leaned" any more forward, my head would scrape the front tire

You probably already know this, but you know you're supposed to only lean far enough that your head ducks? If you push too far then your guy stands up like he's going to bunnyhop or something... not very aerodynamic. you gotta lean so he hides behind the glass, and no further! sorry if this was a useless tip.

okay, wtf. I didn't know that you could get "flaming" stunts if you do the usual flips and rotations in vehicles whilst they're burning.

Oh wow. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbpypLg08ik bad quality but still v cool!

okay, wtf. I didn't know that you could get "flaming" stunts if you do the usual flips and rotations in vehicles whilst they're burning.

Learned that one the hard way actually. One of the few times that I allowed myself to die, and then I bought back all my weapons. I was too busy staring at the caption back at the accident when the car blew up and killed me.

I do love the different "bribes" you can buy in this game since after awhile, money's not really an object anyway.

I like keeping my stats pure though :(

Found a weird glitch today. Landed my helicopter next to a wall downtown and caught trapped in this tunnel:

http://img364.imageshack.us/img364/5640/im003674ao5.jpg

There were Sharks shooting at me, and yet, I was trapped with no way out.

http://img364.imageshack.us/img364/9939/im003675xf5.jpg

I did figure out one way to shoot at 'em though.

http://img364.imageshack.us/img364/5986/im003673qp7.jpg

roffle

i got trapped in the attic of one of those sea huts, after landing my helicopter on the roof. had to grenade myself to death.

From the noise board:

http://mods.moddb.com/8553/gta-back-to-the-future-mod

Want one...

**SPOILER SPOILER**

The 'Rush' Mission in the Linerunner truck. I completed this last night after days of frustration. My tip? Get a three or four star wanted level, it's a lot easier when the cars come to you

The only hitch is that you have to ride out the time so try not to get too battered, or hide somewhere.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1422/682534673_811dc435aa_b.jpg

(been bored this weekend)

http://img389.imageshack.us/img389/3594/im003688yz3.jpg

http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/2244/im003684ey0.jpg

I just started playing this in anticipation of GTA4! Much, much better than I imagined. It's nice to be able to drive around Vice City without being frustrated by not being able to do things I got used to in San Andreas but seemed perfectly content with not being able to do the first time around.

Also, it's got that unpredictability of San Andreas plus more. Those crazy pedestrians wiggling about all over the place trying to avoid ending up underneath my car! Drivers plowing into me at high speed as I'm crossing the road! Massive jumps that seem to pop up over the horizon at just the right time! Perfect.

cool PP, is that on the ferris wheel?

how did you get there?

Man I need to go back and do more of this game. Not just yet methinks... Still have Shadow of the Colussus to finish...

I may be the last person to know this, but I found out you can use the sniper rifle from indoors. I was playing around on this last night trying to get a 6 star wanted level so I could steal a Rhino so I holed up in the Clymenus Suite apartment & was sniping off the roof, blowing up helicopters etc, then running back inside to rejuvenate my health. Inside I tried sniping at the cops below & I could shoot through the window but was totally protected from them firing at me. Didn't get the Rhino in the end, as I went out to nab it I got busted :-(

Another humorous thing while I was on the roof - I was over the water side, facing the golf course & all these cop cars kept driving over the golf course straight into the canal - after about 20 or so I got bored of picking them off & went back to the street side. Amused me no end...

never did find that last balloon...

haha me neither!

Ok after seeing this stuff for years, but never having actually played it, I finally got GTA: Vice City last night, and yeah I'm in heaven, what a cool sandbox game.

I'm such a noob at this tho. I have no idea how to make money or anything. I'm guessing i need to rob a gun store or something...?

just do missions - those are denoted by the little "letter landmarks" on your map. after a while they'll start giving you option stuff to do like deliver pizzas or give taxi rides, but the money you make off the main missions - the story - usually suffice enough. plus, the only things you can really buy are weapons and you get plenty of those just via doing actual missions are scavenging off dead dudes.

if you find the hidden items, for every 10 you find, a new weapon becomes freely available at your safe house.

OK but im supposed to get clothes and have 0 money.

LOL I just looked up a walkthrough and read this

If you've never played a PC game like "Vice City" before, I recommend it, if you don't mind some colorful language. It's the 1st one I ever played all the way through

Ah nevermind, he gave the clothes to me for free i guess.

Damn this game is fun, and the soundtrack is occasionally super awesome. Don Henley & Roxy Music, Michael Jackson & Judas Priest. All so awesome.

It occurred to me that this game actually TEACHES you things and one of the things it teaches you is that shooting cops, killing random people, causing havoc in general, is detrimental to your progress in a very real way. So many missions just get more and more difficult when you get a warning level. Or maybe you need a car in the best condition possible for a mission -- you'll need to go out of your way to make sure you drive reasonably sane on the way to your destination.

It's cool that it can be sandbox anarchy and the fact that that stuff is so fun and stylized and hyper-real sort of makes it even more of an effort NOT to mess things up when you're trying to win the game.

vice city stories available for osx yet? pretty impressed with the osx port of gta:vc, seems pretty close to what i recall of the ps2 version though it's been about 10 years since i was playing regularly